The most important decision in large-scale product development

The definition of the product is a non-trivial, essential choice that determines the amount of organizational change you can expect in your organization when adopting agile practices and who needs to be involved.

In this workshop, I would like to explore the impact that the breadth of the product definition (how you define your product) has on product development in a large organization. We will start with a discussion and examples of products in typical large-scale organizations. We will then apply Systems Thinking by observing systems dynamics and creating a general picture of reality in complex organizational contexts. For that, we will work in small groups and draw Causal-Loop Diagrams (CLD), and reflect on our own mental model regarding the system dynamics. Afterward, we will touch on tools and techniques that allow us to define the product in a large organization. No previous knowledge regarding system modeling is needed. I will start with a short introduction in the language of systems diagrams, for those not familiar with the topic.